SPORTS RATINGS WRAP | Darwin goes large with Supercars, the AFL v the NRL, and the Aussies are still in the World Cup Cricket

It was another big weekend in sport, with the ICC World Cup and FIFA Women’s World Cup continuing, State of Origin 2 and Women’s State of Origin approaching, more crowd controversies in the AFL, Supercars continues to boom on Fox, and steady performances for Super Netball.

The highest rating fixture of the weekend was Thursday night’s AFL Adelaide v Richmond match at Adelaide Oval with 1.005 million people tuning in on Seven and Fox Footy. The game was also the highest rating game for the round on the Seven network with 790,000 people.

On Foxtel it was Saturday evenings Souths v Panthers clash which was the highest drawing game with 276,000 viewers tuning in.

AFL

Round 13 of the AFL season was another bye round with 6 teams having the week off and matches being played in Townsville and Hobart. The total viewing audience for the round was 3.388 million across the Seven Network and Foxtel, while the average audience per round currently sits at 4.18 million per round.

The highest rating game for the round was Thursday night’s Adelaide v Richmond match at Adelaide Oval with 1.005 million people tuning in on Seven and Fox Footy. The game was also the highest rating game for the round on the Seven Network with 790,000 people switching on nationally across metro and regional Australia.

The highest rating game for Fox Footy for the round was Sunday’s North Melbourne v Greater Western Sydney match from Hobart which rated 218,000 across the country.

During the week the AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan told a press conference that the AFL TV ratings were up double digits on last year, and this appears to be the case with Television ratings up 10.03% on the same time in 2017.

The AFL Premiership Season has had 54.345 million viewers this season at a match average of 490,000 across Fox and Seven.

All free to air television markets are up relative to the same time last year, with Metro (5 city) audiences up 9% to an average of 259,000, regional audiences up 23% to 95,000, Free to air total audiences up 11% to an average of 347,000.

In Sydney, audiences are up 8% to 32,000. In Melbourne, the average audience is up 15% to 278,000. Brisbane audiences are benefiting from increased exposure on Seven’s main channel, up 33% to 28,000 per game. Adelaide and Perth audiences were both up 3.8% to averages of 94,000 and 95,000 respectively.

Foxtel audiences have taken a slight downward turn on 2018, down 0.32% to an average audience of 174,000.

More than 900,000 viewers have tuned into the state competitions this year, with state footy averaging 31,000 viewers on Channel 7. The VFL averages 40,000 viewers, while the SANFL takes in 25,000 and the WAFL 26,000 every weekend.

NRL

Round 14 of the NRL season comes the weekend before Rep round and the upcoming State of Origin in Perth and Women’s Origin. The total viewing audience for the round was 3.455 million as the NRL enjoyed a slight victory over the AFL. The NRL averages 3.65 million viewers per round across the Nine Network and Fox League.

The highest rating game for  the round was Friday night’s North Queensland v Wests Tigers match from 1300 Smiles Stadium with a total audience of 806,000 across Nine and Foxtel. It was also the highest rating match of the round on Nine with 575,000 viewers in the metro and regional markets.

Saturday evening’s Souths v Panthers clash was the highest drawing game on Fox League with 276,000 viewers tuning in across the country.

The NRL Premiership Season has had 51.14 million viewers this season at an average of 474,000 across Nine and Fox. In addition, State of Origin 1 adds another 3.207m viewers to the total, giving the NRL a narrow win for this time of the year with just 88,000 viewers – but it should be extended somewhat this weekend.

While Sydney is up 3.51% compared to last year, ratings in other markets haven’t fared as well with Metro markets down 2.88% to an average of 375,000 viewers, regional markets are down 9.85% to 222,000, overall Nine ratings for live league are down 5.88% to an average of 592,000. Foxtel ratings are down 2.8% to an average of 245,000.

Ratings for Nine in Sydney are up 3.51% to an average of 200,000 per game, while in Brisbane ratings are down 5.48% to 139,000. Ratings in the GEM-programmed cities are down 14.16% to 31,000 per game.

More than 618,000 folks have watched state level rugby league on GEM (figures not available for NSW Cup matches on Fox), with the NSWRL averaging 27,000 for the Cantebury Cup and the QRL reaching 18,000 every weekend.

World Cup Cricket

Saturday’s Sri Lanka v Australia game rated 495,000 for the first session on Nine nationally, and 205,000 for the second session. On Fox Cricket session 1 rated 236,000, with session 2 coming in at 72,000.

Super Netball

Round 8 of the Super Netball series was watched by 175,000 people in the 5 capitals as season ratings reached 1.4 million in the 5 capitals at an average of 88,000 viewers per game on Nine. The Sunday game reached more than 100,000 viewers for its third consecutive week, despite being shown in Perth on GEM.

Super Rugby

Round 18 of the Super Rugby season had 3 games featuring Australian sides with Brumbies and Reds rating best with 50,000 viewers. Australian Super Rugby teams average 57,000 on Foxtel, while Super Rugby broadcasts average less than 51,000 for the season.

The Super Rugby Replay averages 9,000 viewers, as does the Shute Shield, while the weekends Global Rapid Rugby Fixture was watched by 3,000 people.

Supercars

The V8s had a big weekend with 176,000 watching the race in Darwin, a figure which was up 22% on the corresponding race last year.  10 of the top 20 Foxtel programs on Sunday were V8 related.

RaceTorque.com reports that Supercars ratings on Fox are up 16% on 2018, with an average audience of 152,000, with Sunday races all reporting increases.

Data Notes

All data is sourced from OzTAM and RegTAM. Reported data does not include Kayo, mobile apps or Telstra TV – not by choice, this data is simply not available.